We will meet at the Tower Hill Park ‘n Ride and head south to Charlestown to bird several areas such as Trustom Pond NWR, Moonstone Beach, Card’s Pond and Succotash Marsh. Our destinations will be dictated by the bird activity. A scope is recommended but not necessary. Bring a packed lunch if the trip runs past 12pm.

Due to parking restrictions at areas we are visiting, carpooling will be necessary to ensure all cars will have room. If you’d like to find a carpool to the meeting location, we can try to help you find one!

We will make several stops around the Newburyport area concentrating on the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge where we will search for shorebirds, raptors, ducks, and warblers. The varied habitats combined with the timing of this trip allow for the possibility of a very well-rounded trip list. This is a great opportunity to bird one of the east coast’s premiere birding spots and learn about many different bird families.

We will meet in the parking lot of the Market Basket at 25 Storey Ave, Newburyport MA at 8am and carpool from there. Note – This is about a 90 min drive from Providence. If you’d like to carpool to Newburyport from RI, e-mail the leader and we can assist you in finding a carpool.

Bring a scope if you have one.

This is an all day trip, so be sure to bring a lunch as we’ll have a picnic along the way!

Directions: Zero your odometer at the entrance to Colt State Park on Rt. 114 (Hope Street) in Bristol, where you will see an impressive set of bulls. At .4 miles from the entrance, bear LEFT (avoid the Bristol Town Beach entrance on the right). At .7 miles, go directly through the rotary (12 o'clock), which may require driving around a sawhorse. At 1 mile, bear LEFT and up a hill to the first parking lot, which overlooks a stone bridge and Mill Gut. We will meet you there and will have a scope, so you don't need to bring one.

Brief description: It will be low tide at Mill Gut, so we will briefly scan for oystercatchers, yellowlegs, egrets and herons. Then we will scan the grassy fields for gulls, killdeer, and possible shorebirds. We will drive to Picnic Area 1-10 and park at the trailhead to walk 2.5 miles on forested trails, looking for towhees, vireos, pewees, gnatcatchers, woodpeckers, nuthatches, catbirds, wrens, and any migrant warblers that we can bag. Depending upon the day, we may leave the park via Coggleshall Farm and look for raptors and wild turkeys before heading to Bristol harbor where we may see geese, cormorants, ducks etc. So bring your spirit of adventure along with your understanding that we never know what we might find, particularly with more eyes watching and more ears listening.